Friday, April 12, 2013

Noah's ark - and other fairy tales

If you’re even vaguely familiar with the Bible, you’re probably aware of the fact that the story of Noah and his ark is found in the Book of Genesis. If you’re more knowledgeable about Biblical verses than most people, you’ll recognize that the specific chapters in Genesis related to the ark are 5:32 - 10:1.

Since ancient times, scholars and explorers have searched for the ark, and numerous search parties have reached the conclusion that the final resting place for the ark is somewhere in present day Turkey. To date, though, no one has produced credible evidence that the ark actually existed. One of the more recent search parties posted a 45 minute video on YouTube last December describing their search, which you can view below:

The fact that concrete evidence of the ark still hasn’t been found doesn’t mean that the ark never existed. It just means that, at this point in time, the existence of the ark cannot be supported by scientific evidence.

If you’re dying to see what the ark looked like, a born-again Dutchmen named Johan Huibers recently opened a life-sized replica in Holland, and offers tours:

The folks who aren't quite as zealous as Creation Museum founder Ken Ham (pictured below with a dinosaur statue from his museum) might argue that the $73,000,000 could have been put to better use:

1) Kentucky is the 5th poorest state in the country, and child poverty is now 26.5%

2) Kentucky has the highest cancer rate in the country.

3) Kentucky is one of the worst states in the country for school funding.

4) Kentucky has the worst animal protection laws in the country.

5) Kentucky has a major heroin problem.

Since Mr. Ham has "been burdened by God to rebuild a full-size Noah's ark", none of those other uses for that money are likely to happen.

A recent Gallup poll found that roughly 30% of the American population believes that the words of the Bible are literally true, or inerrant. As a result, when Genesis says that Noah fathered three children when he was 500 years old, the “literalists” will believe that his age is factually accurate, and will also believe that he was 600 years old when the floodwaters came to the earth. They’ll also believe that he lived to be 950 years old,

If you tend to rely on scientific facts instead of Biblical references, you’re probably aware of the fact that the earth is actually 4.54 billion years old, and you’ll also know that dinosaurs and humans did NOT exist at the same time on our planet (in spite of the fact that the Creation Museum has statues of dinosaurs wearing saddles).

The truth is, the dinosaurs never made it aboard the ark. Sadly, neither did the loveliest of all creatures, the unicorn, a creature that is mentioned frequently in the Bible.

I’ve heard various religious leaders proclaim that the belief in human evolution “takes a lot of faith”, but that the Bible should be taken literally.

Even the 15% of our population who believe ONLY in evolution wouldn’t say that we all evolved from fruits and vegetables, but it’s absolutely true that we share 60% of our DNA with bananas.

It’s also true that we share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Even if you discount the work of Charles Darwin entirely, the fact that we share THAT much DNA with chimpanzees should be pretty convincing proof that humans evolved from a lower life form at some point in time.

In America, museums related to human evolution can be found at the Smithsonian Institute, as well as at the University of Pennsylvania. The Natural History Museum, in Charles Darwin’s England, can be found in London, and the museum of Human Evolution can be found in Burgos, Spain.

The discussion in Genesis between Noah and God is well-written and reasonably believable, but my instincts tell me that the conversation was probably a lot more like the one shown below:

I’m of the opinion that Noah and his ark probably existed at some point in time, even though there is no scientific evidence (so far) to support that view. I’m also of the opinion that the theory of evolution is true and factual, but it can’t explain the myriad of complex organisms that exist today, which could only be explained by the theory of Intelligent Design. For the atheists among us, that means that the invisible Man in the sky actually DID have a lot to do with how the world looks today, even though it took Him a LOT longer than six days to accomplish what He did.

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About Me

I sold cars for The Autobarn of Evanston from February of 2005 until my retirement in July of 2011. Immediately prior to that, I was a college level English instructor in Guangzhou, China.
Being Irish, I have long felt a compulsion to put down my thoughts on paper. After one of my customers published a few of my stories on HER blog site (Dwana), I eventually figured out how to publish stories on my own site. The first story (To Hell and back - on a bicycle) appeared on March 4,2009.
The inspiration for the title is a man named Clayton Klein, an elderly Michigan man who walks from Paradise (Michigan) to Hell (Michigan) every year (a distance of 420 miles) to raise money for charity. His story, as well the bicycle ride that my daughter and I undertook in the summer of 2007, provided the starting point for what became the site titled tohell-and back.